(March 3, 2023, St. John’s) – Barry Petten, PC Opposition Critic for Education and MHA for Conception Bay South, is adding his voice to recent comments by NLTA President Trent Langdon about the teacher shortage across the province.

Petten was responding to media comments by Langdon that outline a school system in crisis with chronic teacher shortages adding to challenges in the classroom.

“With have a critical shortage of teachers in our province and not enough substitute teachers to fill the need. Classes are being doubled up, schools are at risk of closing and existing teachers are being taken away from their regular duties. And as Mr. Langdon has noted, backfilling the current void with retired teachers is NOT a long-term or sustainable plan.”

“Unfortunately, just as with the crisis facing our healthcare system, the Furey Government has not developed a human resource plan for our schools. Students, who have faced significant learning loss during COVID-19 that has not been addressed, are dealing with additional challenges that are entirely the fault of the Liberal Government.”

“Where is the plan to attract more people to go into teaching? Where are the incentives to attract trained teachers, who have left the profession, back to the classroom? How can we incentivize more retired teachers to come back in the short term?”

“Sadly, all we hear from Government is silence.”

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Contacts:

Bradley Russell

Director of Communications and Digital Strategy

(cell) 709-729-3668

BradleyRussell@gov.nl.ca